8 great websites that attorneys absolutely must know about

Mobile apps are useful tools for lawyers on the go, but attorneys generally do the majority of their work at their office. We have therefore created a list of websites that are ideally suited for attorneys that spend most of their day working on desktop computers or laptops. With a little practice, these innovative services may help improve a law firm’s overall productivity. Best of all, the services on these websites are completely free!

This website can be extremely useful for intellectual property attorneys — specifically those who practice trademark or copyright law. By simply copying and pasting an image onto the site, TinEye will scour the web for similar images. Matching images are displayed along with information as to where each image was found. Attorneys can then learn if a client’s prospective mark or logo is already in use, or if others are using a likeness, design or artistic work without their permission. It is also easy to upload a photo from a digital camera or smartphone onto the website, which makes it possible to find out information about an unlabeled product or a building with no visible address. While TinEye is only sufficient for preliminary research, it can be a great timesaver. Alternatively, one can conduct reverse image searches on sites such as Google Images or Byo Image Search.

Hold it. Before you skip this website and go to the next one because you think it is a dull health food blog or spreadsheet app, take a look at this site and see how much time it can save you. Miracle Salad lets users quickly and easily calculate hours worked by inputting even the oddest start and stop times. For example, input a start time of 8:58 and a stop time of 11:23, and Miracle Salad calculates 2:25 (i.e. two hours and 25 minutes) worked. It can then add up all those odd-hour workdays and present the total in a meaningful “hour:minute” format. For example, input work times of “4:11,” “7:23,” “3:18,” and, “1:49” and Miracle Salad will calculate the total as “16:41 (16.68 hours).” No personal information, registration or downloading required.

IFTTT is pronounced “ift” as in lift, and it stands for “If this, then that.” This website allows users to link two “channels” together, such as Facebook & Evernote, or LinkedIn & Gmail, so that if something happens on one channel, it will trigger something else to automatically happen on the other channel. With just a few clicks, users can easily set up an almost limitless combinations of conditional commands — what IFTTT calls “recipes.” For example, one can set up a recipe that will automatically upload e-mail attachments to one’s Dropbox account, add a note to Google Calendar to call someone back if a call is missed, or send a text message if one’s Nest Protect system detects smoke.

This is a great way to set up reminders for those that frequently use e-mail. Users do not need to open up another program or go to another website, but can instead do everything right from their e-mail account. If, for example, you want to remind yourself that you have a filing deadline, you just send an email to nudge@Nudgemail.com, put the date or time you want the email reminder to come to you, say October 10th, and then put the note to yourself in the body. It’s that easy. You can use NudgeMail to schedule Google Calendar events, and even receive push and SMS notifications of your upcoming NudgeMail reminders. It even has a “snooze” function just like an alarm clock.

This website allows users to set up urgent reminders requiring a call to one’s smartphone; perhaps for events that you can’t risk missing if you forget to check your e-mail. Just go to wakerupper.com, set a time, write a short message, and the recipient will receive a wake-up call or a text-to-voice reminder to take medication or complete a task before a deadline.

6. Globalexprovides important up-to-date international law information

GlobaLex is a very important website for attorneys whose practice includes international law. This site is operated by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law and is an electronic legal publication that allows users to click on a country name to find useful information about its government structure, court system and other useful links. The articles published on this site represent research and teaching resources used by legal academics, practitioners and other specialists around the world who are active either in foreign, international and comparative law research or those focusing on their own domestic law. The guides and articles published are written by scholars well known in their respective fields.

By placing a call through slydial, one can bypass the recipient and directly connect to their mobile phone’s voicemail to leave a message. Slydial is especially useful if one does not want to bother someone who is, for example, driving a car, attending a meeting or sleeping in bed. Of course, it is always possible to leave an unobtrusive message by sending a text message, but some messages are too long to type, and there are many people that still do not use a text messaging service. This function can also be very handy where a direct conversation may not be desired for any number of reasons.

Sometimes, an office can be uncomfortably quiet, especially at night after the rest of the staff has gone home for the day, and this can negatively impact productivity. Coffitivity recreates the comforting background noises one typically hears at a cafe in order to boost one’s mood and focus. Users can choose from several different coffee shop tracks and even play music over the background sounds to create an even more pleasant work atmosphere.